It has the ones that are part of the Classic Shell software. Any additional skins that you see on this forum are created by other people. You need to contact them for the actual source files and usage terms.

>actively maintaining compatibility for an obscure windows 10 release that less than 5% of Windows 10 users likely useI mean if it currently runs on LTSB then it should continue to run on LTSB for 10~ years if you dont install anything beyond the security updates

Ivo ... what about a lo-fi read-only version for another year after that, maybe things turn around. That shouldn't be that costly to host. Feels sad to see history being erased like this, in this time and age a powerful group which has their grip around the technology sector is only interested in pushing their things and overriding all other cultures, something like this could stand as a protest against that.

Especially if some of the programmer/hacker gurus get their head out of their butts, so many haxors around the globe and so little hardcore mods for windows, for example the termsrv.dll mod which allowed multiple simultaneous users through RDP on one PC plus a real physical user.

Maybe something would happen if someone who has a good amount of bitcoins would start posting "winproject jobs" about "find a way to bring back this windows feature on this windows version and build" on TOR sites, there's absolutely going to be someone out there who would be willing to do it and do it really good for a price.

On this Win10 build I have right now, unfortunately, the UseWin32TrayClockExperience does not work, but I knew it worked on one of the version I had tested half a year ago, and I looked in detail, it was actually one tiny build number higher, so somehow now I have a little bit older version (probably because of the lack of that unnecessary update which was a tack-on) but it looks like that thing made this work. Because everything else works except this, so it's a pity.

>actively maintaining compatibility for an obscure windows 10 release that less than 5% of Windows 10 users likely useI mean if it currently runs on LTSB then it should continue to run on LTSB for 10~ years if you dont install anything beyond the security updates

Exactly, I have no idea what are most of these "windows gurus" thinking. You're not suppose to run Windows Update, you're not suppose to "move" to any OS, jeez!

Get another disk and put Win10 on, don't bother with dual boot, then alternate the disks, it's not a good idea if newer windows versions detect another windows installation, they'll try to mess with it or even push updates and promos.Then install all the drivers and anti-spying and disable updates without connecting to the net, takes prep time to DL, after connecting then do the rest of the tweaks, and there you go, tweaks will keep working forever, no need to switch any OSes.

There's very little useful in updates, and if you do it, you do it with WSUSOffline and that's how I updated my Win7 twice in over a 5 year period, by manually using DISM tools to update over 80 updates at once.

However it took me like 2 days to manually scour thoguht the updates which are going to beneift and which ones were part of the Win10 promo crap as well as the ones which are high-risk for messing things up, but this is also a lot of experience on my part which plays in, an average person won't have the patience for any of this, but this is what is the difference from sheeple vs guru.

I've tested Win10 3 times through the years, but only for a few hours each time, didn't like a lot of it, but I wasn't even planning testing for much, from the get go it was clear it's going to be a crappy OS for the old cats, that's why I did not bother with any of it until 2 years later, this year.Why? Because if you're a windows guru, you're suppose to know that everything and anything new from MS will have at least a year of the beta-test period, you're not suppose to take a new OS seriously in that timeframe, everyone that does is a trapped lab rat.

So this month I took the time to nail it, tweaked the crap out of it, took me a week of hard work full hour days, long long story, it's going to look like Win7 soon enough when I finish all my tweaks, including the full GUI and the boot logo.

I will also take it a step further in the following year (hopefully) and do something what does probably not exist yet, a full blown system icons change so almost every icon possible will have a Win7 version, including the mouse cursor.

That's what a windows guru is, you people are doing it wrong, time to stop being sheeple.

After all this, you would think, "OMG WHAT ABOUT SECURITY" ... if you're a PC guru, you're not suppose to keep anything highly private on such a computer you use daily and online anyway, so who cares if they hack or do a few viruses, they wouldn't find anything important.

But then, you would ask, "OMG WHAT IF THEY ENCRYPT EVERYTHING" ... if you're a PC guru, you have regular clonezilla full disk image backups, you're not suppose to deal with any OEM or Windows gimmick backup tools.

I thought Vista was enough to make someone loose their temper that they have to switch to something else. Like I am stupid and the automations and scripts can predict and think better for me like thumb view being set and filenames being hidden because it had one picture in a folder and have to do a lot to get it back at the time. One thing I absolutely hate is that BREADCRUMB they decorate over the address bar as it bloats the view and makes it unclear. As a lone technician it is unclear and confusing to look at. I don't always want to click it to find the rest of the details. Unnecessary or not it is stupid as limits the view. They could have given the user a choice as it might work for a particular situation but no. I know there are a few breadcrumb killers out there but this made it easy. There are a bunch of other things but I don't always care how it looks as long as it doesn't interfere with what I am doing.

I spend hours on customising customers things just to make it easy to use and thanks to this tool they eventually become literate as they can see what they're doing.

They say "People don't like changes and they have learn how to accept changes and so on". It is whether it benefits us or not but when it interferes and hinders our activities and where the users have no sense of where they stand and unable to learn and that is where there will be tools such as Classic shell.

After so many years of use it looks like everyone will have to start donating.

Over the years I have been annoyed with unclosable fixed headers/persistent bars that also cause the same annoyance and I found a Chrome plugin Header hider fixer for that by Emojistuff but then I see this project is closing down.

I am concerned about at which point Classic Shell is going to *stop* working due to API changes in future MSWin10 releases. Would want to know so I can be sure to lock-down systems for family members at the last compatible MSWin version.

Yes, I know it's been open-sourced, but it will take time for other developers to become interested in the project, and more time for them to come up to speed on the code. Personally, I'd just as readily prefer to get my brother to move *his* machines to Linux, and at worst case the in-laws would have to buy some "commercial" replacement shell (presuming MS doesn't manage to break them as well). And my wife will either need to deal with degraded functionality in later MSWin versions or just run WoW under Wine/Crossover.

Nobody knows... but its likely microsoft will continue allowing users to opt in for beta updates... run one of these as a VM, and when the start menu breaks.. thats the time to lock your other computers ;P

Registered solely to say thanks, and you have been valuable to the windows community.

Personally I run windows 8.1, I disagree with the principle of treating home users like beta testers on the twice yearly feature updates, one of the reasons been it breaks software such as classic shell. I believe in been control of my own system, even if it means I am less secure, so be it.

I use startisback for my menu but only because I already had a license when I realised classicshell does the same thing, on my family pc's they have classic shell for the menu, I use classic shell to enhance my explorer and IE tho.

I perfectly understand why you quit, I imagine for something you do as a hobby, having to fix it every 6 months made it seem more like a job, which is what I feared would be the result after microsoft released windows 10. The author of another bit of software I use also recently quit as well, I expect for similar reasons. I also wouldnt rule out microsoft deliberately breaking your program as well, I cannot remember the windows 10 start menu really changing on every update yet they seem to change code that forces you to have to fix it.

I also commend you releasing the source code, been open to the community to carrying on your work, I like that integrity whilst other developers can react differently, pulling download links etc.

My first experience with win10 (i came from 3.1 > 95 > 98 > ME > 2k > XP > 7) was terrible. OMG, everthing was black, so depressing. The startmenue was so confusing. What is all this wierd chessboard-icons stuff about? There was no logic to me in that menue. It kinda made the OS worse like unity for ubtuntu. Absolutely disturbing.

Classic shell is a great non commercial option. It is not as buggy as most spooky or OS destroying gui-software and it is much smaller in megabytes. At first it was very confusing. So many options, switches. It took me serveral hours until i found my favourite style but the forum always answered all questions i had ... because someone else already asked them and they were kindly answered... thats how the internet should work all the time . And its great that there is a save2file option for the startmenue and the explorer settings. I reinstall Win10 twice a year (feels like a fresh new haircut ^^ ... for the aerodynamics xD) and this save files makes it so much easier for me.

Thanks to the developer and thanks for making it open source. I hope somebody will continue developing this awesome program. Thanks to the community.

Because of you i now like Win10 more than Win7.(Win7 was my favourtie OS with default settings + little changes the OS allowed me to do without additional software)

Can't you make a business model for Classic Shell? If it makes you money -- you can have motivation to do it again no?

I would gladly pay for Classic Shell. It is SO much better than the built in Windows one, everybody says so. I work with a lot of clients and end users, I'd happily pay $10 for each person, or probably a large license of like 1000 users would be better. I'm seriously so bummed by this, we've structured a large part of our businesses with Classic Shell.

Just curious, where can I go to find information regarding possible continuation of Classic Start Menu by another organization - I think some are looking into it presently, but not sure how to find plans or progress of such actions. I know there are many like myself who would like to encourage and support a continuation group but it seems to be a matter of getting people organized and in contact with one another. Appreciate any information in this - thanks.

Someone would need to make an announcement.. and I haven't heard of any yet. IVO would be the best chance of knowing because its possible people have emailed him with intent, though if they haven't said anything on the forums, they might not want their name out there, or be committed yet

Opened this account just now to say.........................THANK YOU FOR CLASSIC SHELL!!!!

I first found out about this software when I decided to register in the Windowz Insider program as a beta tester in the summer of 2015. After doing a clean install on this system and seeing what the start menu looked like I went hunting for something to "fix" it. Classic Shell showed up in google search and the rest is history. I've run Classic Shell on EVERY beta version that I installed and when Win 10 went RTM in July of 2016 and I got my FREE copies for TWO desktops that I had beta versions on. Those two desktops plus a Toshiba laptop with Win 10 ALL HAVE CLASSIC SHELL DESKTOP ON THEM TO THIS DAY!!

I see now that v1803 is listed so I guess I'll have to upgrade yet again??????? When/if Classic Shell stops working then that is when I'll stop using 10 at all. Two of my desktops are multi boot systems with various Windowz versions on each from XP on plus each also runs Linux Mint, which is my "every day" operating system that I use explicitly for secure online stuff. My Toshiba laptop has Win 10 on one hard drive and Linux Mint on another and I switch them depending on what I want/need to do with it.

Ennywho, thanks again for creating Classic Shell and lets hope that someone will bake up the cause and continue to make it work with Windows JUNK!! In fact, I've got a new HP desktop coming tomorrow that I've got to get ready for the 84 year old lady and installing Classic Shell will be the FIRST thing I do to it after it boots up!!

PS, I'm going to bookmark this page and check back occasionally to see if anyone is going to continue development on this.

If you have the original Win10 and completely turn off (disable) updates, will all the features of the original CS work?

(Please don't bother responding about turning off updates.)

Yes it should. even with the most recent version of windows 10, the start menu works fine for many (me included)However minor features are begining to depreciate (the games folder is missing for example)

I really hope you guys continue to develop this. As a business user we would love the ability to set defaults for every new user that logs into a computer and/or install with preconfigured options. Currently we have to tweak it so that each new user that logs in gets the settings we want.

Ivo-- would you be interested at all in a business model to monetize Classic Shell? There's seriously way too much demand to just let this go by the wayside. I've worked with a LOT of clients and every single one of them have loved classic shell. They'd all pay for it if that was the option. If not even for the money but just to continue on with providing an option for the whole world in lieu of the giant Microsoft. If you'd be interested in this I'd be interested in talking to you.

I've heard that the registration was closed on the forum.I'm writing this post in hope of spread the word and maintaining the current user community base, it is not easy for us to meet here, and I want to keep it instead of lose it.

Unfortunately, on the last Insider Build (which I installed today, 17692.rs_prerelease.180609-1317 classic shell doesn't work properly anymore...after opening the classic shell start menu 1 time (which goes well) and closing it, it is very small when opening again and it get's stuck...restarting classic shell results in the same behaviour...Would be nice if someone with the same version can confirm this...

Unfortunately, on the last Insider Build (which I installed today, 17692.rs_prerelease.180609-1317 classic shell doesn't work properly anymore...after opening the classic shell start menu 1 time (which goes well) and closing it, it is very small when opening again and it get's stuck...restarting classic shell results in the same behaviour...Would be nice if someone with the same version can confirm this...

There is one potential Avenue of redemption for Windows 10 and maybe a reboot of this application...In the early days of Windows NT, Windows didn't really have much of a shell, they encouraged enterprises to create\use a custom shell but it wasn't widely adopted and when MS introduced the Start Menu (or explorer.exe) as the default shell everyone just jumped to that.

Since NT 4.0 I've been amazed that no-one has taken the opportunity to exploit this given feature and make a better alternate UI all round.I believe once one person\group\company does it and makes a successful app out of it I think others would see the potential and follow.

If any advanced users have a virtual machine, have a play with that... Make it start your own app (or just Notepad for fun) and see what you think. Banks & kiosks do use this feature, but its few & far between.

I get that this would require 4x the man power, time etc... and would more likely have a cost associated with it.Sadly I'm not a developer but this would be one app I would love to be involved with & see developed.

There is one potential Avenue of redemption for Windows 10 and maybe a reboot of this application...In the early days of Windows NT, Windows didn't really have much of a shell, they encouraged enterprises to create\use a custom shell but it wasn't widely adopted and when MS introduced the Start Menu (or explorer.exe) as the default shell everyone just jumped to that.

Since NT 4.0 I've been amazed that no-one has taken the opportunity to exploit this given feature and make a better alternate UI all round.I believe once one person\group\company does it and makes a successful app out of it I think others would see the potential and follow.

If any advanced users have a virtual machine, have a play with that... Make it start your own app (or just Notepad for fun) and see what you think. Banks & kiosks do use this feature, but its few & far between.

I get that this would require 4x the man power, time etc... and would more likely have a cost associated with it.Sadly I'm not a developer but this would be one app I would love to be involved with & see developed.

A friend of mine and I have already been working in that direction for a little while now, in the form of a project called Start9. Not only is it an alternative shell, much like what you're proposing, but it's actually modular. This means that any developer can write a piece of shell, be it a Taskbar, Home Screen, File Manager, Application Launcher, or whatever else, and then the user can simply install these modules and arrange some of them in whatever configuration you like. The modules will be able to take advantage of our API to access Windows shell functionality, including undocumented stuff like Jump List info and Live Tiles...and we take care of the Windows Update maintenance. It's basically a build-your-own-shell kit, in more than one sense.

That having been said, Start9 is far from complete. A lot of the functionality I've described is not yet fully implemented, if at all. That's not to say we haven't made a fair degree of progress, though...

Unfortunately, on the last Insider Build (which I installed today, 17692.rs_prerelease.180609-1317 classic shell doesn't work properly anymore...after opening the classic shell start menu 1 time (which goes well) and closing it, it is very small when opening again and it get's stuck...restarting classic shell results in the same behaviour...Would be nice if someone with the same version can confirm this...

Splitwirez wrote:

Clemens wrote:

Unfortunately, on the last Insider Build (which I installed today, 17692.rs_prerelease.180609-1317 classic shell doesn't work properly anymore...after opening the classic shell start menu 1 time (which goes well) and closing it, it is very small when opening again and it get's stuck...restarting classic shell results in the same behaviour...Would be nice if someone with the same version can confirm this...

I have Windows 10 Pro and also use Outlook Express, an email client that Microsoft dropped after Windows XP. I got it at www.runasxp.com and latest version works very well. Just like the old Outlook Express it allows me to create different Identities, has the same Windows Address Book .wab files, and even starts with the "Microsoft Outlook Express" icon when the application starts up. Unfortunately, whenever Microsoft put out a new Major Update, it deletes the registry info of Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities and the LOCAL_MACHINE of Microsoft\Windows\Outlook Express keys and data. So I create backups (export) of those used keys and keep my store folder of emails on another partition and drive letter, and if I have to I reinstall Outlook Express 6 with latest version and reintroduce the saved .reg files back into the registry and things work again.

The reason I mention all this, is that they have developed at that site a small piece of software that allows you to disable Windows Update, as well as a few other things, and it seems to work with my computer in keeping it from surprising me with a new, not wanted, update. Perhaps others would find that update disable useful here as well. It seems to only block major updated, and not security updates. And the security updates don't seem to affect the Outlook Express nor do they change the version number in my lower right hand screen.

_________________I was born with nothing and have managed to keep most of it!

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